Join Our Research Community – PhD & Postdoctoral Positions in AI

WP-CES1 – PhD Candidate- Empowering healthcare providers and patients through transparent AI based decision-making

UMC Utrecht

This PhD position focuses on how AI transparency and trustworthiness can be meaningfully implemented in real-world healthcare contexts, such as diagnostic decision support or patient outcome predictions. Your research will focus on how patients, healthcare providers and researchers can understand and trust AI generated outputs, diagnoses or predictions, and how this understanding can be supported through technical, medical, scientific, and communication strategies.

Deadline: 26 May 2026

WP6 – PhD position – AI Governance & Regulation

University of Groningen

Your work will be interdisciplinary, collaborating with AI researchers, legal scholars, political economists, and stakeholders from healthcare, business, public governance, and civil society organisations representing different communities. Besides publications in academic journals, you will create widely-accessible reports and policy briefs relating to the democratisation of AI use and deployment. As a PhD candidate, you will be part of a multidisciplinary team of PhD students and become part of a vibrant inter- and transdisciplinary research community. This position is part of a broader set of PhD and postdoctoral opportunities within the DECIDE project, offering a unique opportunity to work in an international environment and gain valuable research experience.

Deadline: 29 May 2026

WP4 – AI-Based Citizen Support Systems (AI-CSS)

University of Twente

This work will be focused on the development of computational approaches that can explain domains (i.e., domain concepts, properties, relations, as well as domain constraints and rules) to support citizens’ decision-making. We call these domain explanations. We are especially interested in explanations involving scientific domains, both stable and unstable ones. And we include AI as one of the domains to be explained with the objective of empowering citizens for the use of such technology.

Deadline: 11 June 2026

WP5 – AI Decision Support Systems (AI-DSS)

Utrecht University

This PhD position focuses on developing adaptive AI systems for sequential decision-making that enhance the transparency and contestability of AI-driven decisions, using reinforcement learning and multimodal, personalized explanations to empower users in high-stakes domains such as healthcare and mobility.

This position is part of a broader set of PhD and postdoctoral opportunities within the DECIDE project, offering a unique opportunity to work in an international, interdisciplinary research environment.

Deadline: 15 May 2026

WP2 – AI-enabled Decision-making and the Experience of Empowerment

Radboud University

This PhD position focuses on conceptualising and empirically investigating what it means to experience empowerment in the context of AI-supported decision-making. The research combines qualitative and quantitative methods, including psychometric scale development and experimental studies.

Deadline: 8 March 2026

WP3 – PhD position in Education in AI and science literacy

University of Twente

This PhD position focuses on designing, implementing, and evaluating an educational programme that fosters a new type of AI literacy in university students using a Challenge-Based Learning approach. The research combines educational design, instructional technology, and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Deadline: 6 March 2026

WP7 – PhD Position in Explainable AI for High-Stakes Decision Making

Utrecht University

As a PhD candidate, you will focus on explainable and transparent AI for high-stakes decision-making. You will develop and test methodologies that make AI systems more interpretable, aiming to empower citizens and professionals to make better-informed decisions.

Deadline: 9 March 2026

CES 2 – PhD in Transparent AI Decision Support Systems for Sustainable Mobility

Eindhoven University of Technology

This PhD project develops transparent and explainable AI-based decision-support systems for sustainable mobility. The research combines computational modelling and stakeholder engagement to empower SMEs, entrepreneurs, and policymakers in evaluating mobility-related decisions.

Deadline: 26 February 2026

CES 3 – PhD candidate for DECIDE Project – Democratizing AI

Erasmus University Rotterdam

This PhD position focuses on advancing AI and science literacy through interdisciplinary educational innovation. The project contributes to the development of transparent and responsible AI education across higher education institutions within the DECIDE consortium.

Deadline: 14 March 2026